Marie-Louise Meilleur

Marie-Louise Meilleur

Meilleur in 1998
Born August 29, 1880
Kamouraska, Quebec, Canada
Died April 16, 1998
(aged 117 years, 230 days)
Corbeil, Ontario, Canada
Cause of death
Blood clot
Known for Oldest validated Canadian ever
Spouse(s) Etienne Leclerc (1872–1911, m.1900–1911)
Hector Meilleur (1879–1972, m. 1915–1972)
Children Marie-Louise (1901–1940)
Gerard (1906–1986)
Gabrielle (1908–2004)
Maurice (1910–1973)
Ernest (1916–2005)
Pauline (1918–1980)
Olive (1920–2010)
Christie (1922–1987)
Alfred (1924–1986)
Rita (1925–2011)
Parent(s) Pierre Chassé (1849–1911)
Febronie Levesque (1852–1912)

Marie-Louise Fébronie Meilleur (née Chassé) (August 29, 1880 – April 16, 1998) was a French Canadian supercentenarian who, upon the death of Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, became the oldest recognized living person.[1] Meilleur is the oldest validated Canadian ever and the fourth oldest person in history, behind Jeanne Calment, Sarah Knauss and Lucy Hannah.

Biography

She was born in Kamouraska, Quebec, where she married her first husband, Étienne Leclerc, in 1900. After he and both of her parents died in 1911 and 1912, Meilleur left two of her four surviving children in 1913 and moved to the Ontario border. Only once, in 1939, did she return to the Quebec area. The supercentenarian had six further children by her second husband, Hector Meilleur, whom she married in 1915. After his death in 1972, she lived first with a daughter and then in a nursing home in Corbeil. She had 85 grandchildren, 80 great-grandchildren, 57 great-great-grandchildren, and four great-great-great-grandchildren.

Meilleur smoked tobacco into her nineties.[2][3] By the time she died of a blood clot at age 117 in April 1998 in Corbeil, Ontario, one of her sons was also living in the same nursing home, and her oldest living daughter, Gabrielle Vaughan, was 90 years old.[4][5]

See also

References

External links

Records
Preceded by
Jeanne Calment
Oldest recognized living person
August 4, 1997 – April 16, 1998
Succeeded by
Sarah Knauss